New York state will likely delay its controversial electric school bus mandate by five years, Central New York state Sen. Chris Ryan, a Democrat, told Spectrum News 1 on Wednesday.
It comes as the late state budget — now the latest in 16 years and the fifth straight late budget under Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul — is giving life to legislation that may have otherwise not found its way into the budget conversation.
A bill Ryan introduced days after the budget deadline that would delay the mandate by five years now appears poised to make the final package. Districts are currently required to begin purchasing exclusively electric buses next year and would be required to convert their entire fleet by 2035.
“The mandate is not working,” Ryan said. “As currently written, the mandate would go into effect next July, so we’re basically putting a pause on that until mid-July.”
Ryan explained that the bill, spurred by concerns over cost and logistics for districts, was making its way through the normal committee process before he was surprised to be informed by leadership that it was budget-bound.
“I am confident that it will be in there,” he said.
The discussions come as the state budget process drags on. Lawmakers are expected to pass another budget extender Thursday and votes on the spending package are not expected until at least next week, though multiple members of the state Assembly leaving conference Wednesday afternoon expressed clear doubt that next week is a sure thing.
While Hochul’s negotiating style is no surprise to the state’s Democrat-led Legislature, if the budget is not passed and signed next week, it will infringe on the final two weeks of the legislative session and create an eclipse of normal legislative business not seen in Albany in years.
“It has been a frustrating process. I think holding up financial conversations to deal with policy is really hard,” Rochester Assemblymember Sarah Clark said.
But the delay has given lawmakers time to consider new ideas, whether the ultimately unsuccessful push to expand Hochul’s tax on luxury second homes outside New York City or Ryan spearheading a closer look at concerns from districts over the impending mandate.
“Some big concerns about the availability of the buses, the affordability, the efficacy. In many of my rural districts, they really don’t drive far enough on a charge,” Ryan said.
Clark stressed that if the delay moves forward as part of the budget, it should not simply kick the can down the road.
“If we’re going to look at pushing out the mandate or the years by which we have to comply, I do think we have to figure out as a state some real direction to give each of our school districts. So many of them have unanswered questions that they just don’t know where to go to get answers,” she said.
Republicans in the minority are no fans of the electric school bus mandate, and its repeal is one of their most frequent talking points.
On the Assembly floor this week, Assemblyman Phil Palmesano, ranking member on the Ways and Means Committee and a longtime critic of the mandate, expressed his support for the delay.
“We must delay that mandate. That would be the right thing to do, to provide some help to our local communities, the fears they have with this really large unfunded mandate,” he said.
Not all Republicans are thrilled with this approach to addressing the issue, however, with state Sen. George Borrello calling for a repeal and for the program to be reworked from the ground up.
“While this delay is certainly a step in the right direction, I still believe my legislation to repeal the mandate and replace it with a statewide pilot program is the better approach,” he said. “A pilot study would provide policymakers with real-world data on where, when and under what conditions electric school buses can realistically work across a state as large and varied in climate and geography as New York.”
Hochul’s office declined to weigh in, telling Spectrum News 1 that more details would come when budget bills are printed.